Thursday, March 27, 2008

Ethical Public Domain: Debate of Questionable Practices - this is the title for the Second COMMUNIA workshop to be held in Vilnius, Lithuania on Monday 31 March 2008 from 8:30 to 18.

The morning session will be held at ELTA press center, with registration and introductions from 8:30 to 10:00, followed by ten rounds of debates from 10:00 to 15:00 (about half-an-hour each). At 15:00 there will be a press conference to share the results with the media and the public.

The afternoon session will take place at the Neringa Restaurant, Gedimino 23. A discussion of ethical and legal frameworks for a vibrant Public Domain will be followed by dinner and an evening of creative works.

The workshop is open to the public and is designed to encourage audience participation. Remote participants will also be included by video bridge. For more information and/or to sign up, please visit the workshop website http://www.ethicalpublicdomain.org

The COMMUNIA Thematic Network aims at becoming a European point of reference for theoretical analysis and strategic policy discussion of existing and emerging issues concerning the public domain in the digital environment - as well as related topics, including, but notlimited to, alternative forms of licensing for creative material; open access to scientific publications and research results; management of works whose authors are unknown (i.e. orphan works).

Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus framework, the 3-years long project expects to provide policy guidelines that will help each stakeholder involved - public and private, from the local to the European and global level.

COMMUNIA also plans to build strategic relationships with other non-European countries (starting with the United States and Brazil, where two COMMUNIA members are located) in which similar policy discussions are currently underway.